36 hours in Houston

There are very few things I hate more than driving in a new city. I’d much rather navigate an unfamiliar city on foot, or by taxi cab, or sitting shotgun controlling the radio. It wasn’t until college that I set my four wheels on the highway so to say that I’m not fond of life in the fast lane is an understatement.

I can drive around New York, no problem. And now that I’ve settled into Charleston, it’s not so bad. Then there was Atlanta. Hell. And the other weekend: Houston. Even bigger hell.

People drive extremely slow in Charleston–like below the speed limit slow–and I expected all Southern states and cities to follow that very same trend. Not Houston, though. Oh no. First my GPS fails me and then I can’t get the headlights on my hideous rental car to work. I make it to the highway only to have a massive pick-up truck with 100-inch rims barreling toward my bumper as I’m trying to merge across four lanes. Frightening. Oh, and to top it off, I was driving this… in white! Humiliating.

Highways were colliding, the merging never ended, construction everywhere I turned. Awful. Let’s just say that I was relieved to be back in Charleston amongst the Sunday drivers in less than 36 hours.

One thing I managed to do in Houston, though, aside from working and driving, was shop. I have to give it to them. The shopping is top notch. I really miss department stores. There are no department stores in Charleston! I also miss other retail chains like ZARA, Madewell, and Club Monaco. The Houston Galleria had all of these and so much more. Oh, and did I mention they also had an ice skating rink inside the mall? They really don’t skimp in Texas!